Zachary Lazar talks to Mary Jo Bang about her radical translation of Dante’s Inferno: in an attempt to render the shock Dante caused by writing in conversational Italian rather than the conventional Latin, Bang translated Dante’s text in modern-day English adorned with references to American pop culture. A sample of the text is available online.
A Transformative Translation
Stranger Danger
Siglio Press has just come out with a book version of Sophie Calle's The Address Book, excerpts of which can be seen at The New Yorker.
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Billionaire Book Critic
If you thought Bill Gates was content donating millions of dollars to charities around the world and hiding out in his exorbitantly expensive mansion compound, think again! The Microsoft founder and tech mogul reviews books on his personal blog, Gates Notes–and those reviews actually drive sales. Move over "Colbert Bump," the Gates Bump is here to stay.
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Tragedians
As part of their Literary Ladies Cage Fight series, The Butter pitted two of Shakespeare’s most well-known characters against each other, staging contests between Hamlet’s Ophelia and Romeo and Juliet’s Juliet. Who won, you ask? Only one way to find out. You could also read Stefanie Peters on women and Shakespeare’s plays.
Shock and Auden
A lost journal of W. H. Auden, one of three that the poet is known to have kept, has recently been discovered.
New Zadie Smith
Recommended Reading: Zadie Smith's latest short story, "Moonlit Landscape with Bridge," at The New Yorker. "The Minister got stuck on a sentence: I am further from my village now than I have ever been. Italicized just like that, in his mind."
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Masters Review: Fall Fiction Contest
The Masters Review has announced Ann and Jeff VanderMeer as the judges for this year’s Fall Fiction Contest. The winning story will receive a $2,000 cash prize as well as publication in the magazine. Go submit, then read Josh Rolnick’s essay for The Millions on ten things he's learned in over a decade of sending out stories.
The Vulture Circles
New York magazine's Vulture Reading Room series, featuring Sam Anderson and others, dares to take on Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. The verdict? Brown's stylistic overreach is still good comic fodder for discerning readers.